Southern Weddings

Sure, it’s like playing Russian roulette with the weather, but truly outdoor receptions (as in, no tents!) make for the most incredible pictures!  We love Bethany + Joe’s outdoor garden party at the AMOA Laguna Gloria, and especially like that they used square and rectangular tables instead of traditional rounds.  (Of course, I’m biased, since that’s what I’m doing at my own wedding!)  B + J wisely kept the décor simple so as not to detract from the natural beauty of their venue.  A few touches we do like, though?  The paper lanterns that appear to be hanging in mid-air, the strings of twinkle lights and outdoor lounge area.  So simple, chic and garden perfect!  Michelle’s Patisserie decorated a five-tier square cake for the happy couple, and finished it off with their brand new monogram.  To see me, head on over to The Nichols blog post!  You’ll be glad you did.

Describe your wedding cake: There were a few things we knew we wanted right off the bat when we started planning, and Michelle’s Patisserie red velvet cake was one of them.  Michelle actually had a cookie cutter custom made to match the geometric pattern we used in everything from our Save-the-Dates to our invitations and our escort cards.  She used these shapes to decorate the ivory butter cream frosting with white fondant cut outs – it was perfect!
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome while planning your wedding? For me:  The biggest test I encountered, especially right off the bat, was learning to allow our families and friends help – whether it was putting in their two cents about décor, or listening to their thoughts on etiquette – learning to let go was a bit of a challenge, but in the long run made the whole process much more enjoyable! For Joe: Figuring out how his best friend, and best man, could be involved in the wedding even though his Green Beret unit was stationed in Iraq at the time. They’d always looked forward to being in each other’s weddings, so we planned and surprised Joe (and all the guests) with a video “speech” that he had made and sent to one of Joe’s other groomsmen. 
What was your most memorable moment about your wedding day? For me: Seeing the reactions of our family members to everything. Our families are very important to us, so even the little things, like using my grandmother’s bee (you know, “B” for Bethany!) brooch on my bouquet since she had passed away two weeks prior to the wedding, helped us know that we’ll always have an amazing support system! For Joe: Everyone else in the room disappearing during our first dance. Neither of us love to be in the spotlight, but that moment was absolutely amazing because we were so focused on enjoying moment with each other.
Did you write your own vows?  If so, what was your favorite phrase, verse or line? We opted to say traditional vows – something about finally getting to say those time-honored words to your loved one just meant the world to us!
What advice would you give to future brides? Being in the wedding business, I give lots of advice to my brides (and grooms!).  But the one thing I will forever tell people from here on out is to not worry about the guest list.  So you may be trying to stay within a very specific budget, or your venue may have size restrictions – but in the end, the people that can make it to your wedding want to be there to show their love and support and to celebrate such an exciting and important day with you and your new spouse.  In the end, that’s all that matters.
What’s next for you as a couple?  What are you looking forward to in the future? We’re excited to be a part of each other’s large and close-knit families and look forward to joining these wonderful people together down the road as we start our own family. But for now, we’re happy to have quiet evenings at home with our two dogs!

The shot of the bride’s Melissa Sweet gown hanging above a classic black-and-white tiled floor is what first caught my eye in this Texas wedding from the husband and wife team at The Nichols.  Of course, then I saw the other all-white details in Bethany + Joe’s wedding at AMOA Laguna Gloria, and I was totally sold!  Posey Floral and Event Design styled coordinating all-white bouquets for Bethany + her maids.  Like their neutral-toned mix-and-match frocks from J. Crew, each maid carried her own unique bouquet, and the final result couldn’t be more stunning.  (Mix-and-match done right really is one of my favorites!)  The bride wore sequined Kate Spade heels that matched the glamour of her bow-backed dress, while her groom opted for more casual kicks in his personalized Converse keds.  Love!

How did the two of you meet?  Tell us your story.  As an incoming freshman at The University of Texas at Austin, a new friend invited me to a party that her older cousin was having the week before classes started. Joe was at this party and we immediately hit it off.  We became very close friends and stayed so throughout the next 4 years – through cross country moves, new jobs, and other relationships.  As I was finishing up my senior year, the Texas Longhorns were set to play for the National Championship in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.  Joe was living in Los Angeles at the time, and being such a life-long Longhorn football fan, I planned a trip with some girlfriends to Pasadena even though they had tickets to the game and I did not. Once in LA, Joe invited us all over for dinner where he proceeded to give me my “belated Christmas present” – a card that held two tickets to the Rose Bowl the next day! Joe had won the tickets in a random drawing from a local realtor, and knew that taking me would be the beginning of the greatest adventure of our lives. So in the end, it was the Longhorn football team that really brought us together!
Three adjectives that describe the day are: Warm (literally and figuratively), vivacious, affectionate
Our favorite detail of the wedding was: It’s probably a tie between seeing all our favorite people in one place, and the delicious ice cream float station!
What Southern details or traditions did you include in your celebration?  What was Southern about your wedding? We are Austinites through and through, and wanted to incorporate the very essence of why we love this city so much – it’s quirky and weird, yet still very traditional in many senses.  From our table names (all Austin icons, historical places, and favorite restaurants), to our food and drink choices (local, organic food, and many local beers and wines), we always kept our love for where we live in mind.
Tell us about finding your wedding dress: I went shopping by myself the first trip so I could make some preliminary choices and I ended up falling in love with two completely different dresses. Enter bridesmaids. I took a few of my girlfriends to look at the two dresses and, without showing them “the two”, asked them to pick out some other options just for the sake of comparison.  The first dress I put on that day, which one of my bridesmaids picked out (and I hadn’t even glanced at before), ended up being “the one.” I fell in love with Melissa Sweet’s Heidi – the soft organza, the pleating and detail on the bodice, the fun asymmetrical bow in the back, and the gorgeous buttons that extended the length of the train.  Moral of the story? Even if you don’t think you’ll want it, it helps to have an outside opinion sometimes.
Describe your wedding flowers: Our florist, Madeleine Myers of Posey Floral and Event Design, was also a bridesmaid in our wedding so needless to say she knew our taste and style pretty well.  She created simple centerpieces with varying styles of white bud vases and different groupings of yellow and white flowers on half of the tables and red poppies, anemones, peonies and ranunculus on the other tables.  The bridesmaids carried clean and simple white, mono-floral bouquets, each holding a different type of flower, wrapped in varying yellow and ivory ribbon.  My favorite thing about my bouquet was that Madeleine surprised me with white anemones – my absolute favorite even though we thought we wouldn’t be able to get them in May in Texas!